Right, so we’ve read the articles and heard the news about the head of SSA resigning and all of the departmental chaos online…
… and yet 17 hours ago, I get an email from, yes, you guessed it — the new DOGE-run Social Security Administration:
From: no-reply@ssa.gov
Subject: Your New Social Security Statement is now available
Body:
Dear [My Real Name]:
Your Social Security Statement is streamlined and easier to read than ever before. That is because we have redesigned the Statement to provide you the most useful information up front and at a glance.
We encourage you to check your Statement at least once a year to review:
- Your earnings record (to make sure it’s accurate and notify us if you see any errors);
- Your personalized monthly retirement benefit estimates (which now display how much you can expect to receive depending on when you decide to start your benefits between ages 62 and 70);
- Other useful information that will explain your benefits and help you prepare for your financial future; and
- New fact sheets that provide additional information based on your specific age group and earnings situation.
You can access your new Statement by signing into your account at socialsecurity.gov/reviewyourstatement.
Now that you can access your Statement instantly and anytime online, we will not automatically send one by mail.
We hope you find your new Statement useful and informative.
- My company tests employees weekly on phishing scams in email
- I have a separate spam email account that I use for as many marketing and ecommerce sites as possible
- I used to work at a major antivirus software company, and I’m still really only 1 degree removed from the industry
- I have not looked at my SSA statement in a couple years (!)
- I’m only a decade or so away from making some decisions about my retirement.
Just this weekend I was thinking I should go look at my statement and print it out, so I had some “receipts” to bear if/when it comes time to fight for what I’ve earned so far, I’m not so well-off that I’m not going to NEED this money I’ve been paying in.
But dammit I’ve forgotten my password. I still have my 2FA entry in my Google Authenticator, but that’s it. When I go to the page to reset my password, it mentions that I’ll still need my “16 digit personal code” to re-verify my identity, and I don’t have that code either, so I’m effectively screwed. They are forcing me to give them more PII (Personally Identifiable Information), and that’s just not happening now.
I’ll be holding fast to one of the mantras from Phil Zimmerman back in the day and NOT giving away one of the remaining keys to my data security castle by putting a new password in a form, from a government I do not trust.
